Broncos' Irene Cooper has heavy expectations in weight throw at NCAA Indoors Track and Field Championship

KALAMAZOO — Bill Griffey was a young assistant still learning the recruiting ropes when he asked Western Michigan University women’s track and field head coach Kelly Lycan to take a chance on Irene Cooper.

The senior at Bloomfield Hills Lahser was an average prep shot put and discus thrower who didn’t get much attention from the Division I ranks, including Michigan State, where she hoped to land a scholarship.

Irene Cooper“Bill was only in his first or second year,” Lycan said by phone Wednesday on his way down to the NCAA Indoor Championships at the University of Arkansas, where Cooper will compete Friday in the weight throw for a second time. “He saw her at a high school meet or something and came back and said, ‘Coach, I know I’m still kind of new at this, but you’re going to have to take my word on this ... we’ve got to find a way to come up with some scholarship money for this girl.’”

Lycan glanced at Cooper’s distances and wasn’t as impressed.

“Her marks weren’t very good,” he said. “She wasn’t even throwing 40 feet in the shot put and her discus was even worse. I’m looking at him like, ‘You want me to give this girl scholarship money?’ (Griffey) said, ‘When you see her, you’re going to know what I’m talking about.’”

It took a little longer than that, as Cooper awkwardly struggled to get the feel for the weight and hammer — events introduced to her when she arrived in Kalamazoo.

“I don’t think I would have ever thought that (I’d have this kind of success),” Cooper said. “Freshman year I was throwing into the nets every other meet and almost knocking people out. I would have never guessed ...”

She would have never guessed that just a few months later she’d qualify for the USA Jr. Nationals, eventually winning the hammer at the prestigious meet as a sophomore.

Her junior campaign netted a 10th-place finish in the weight throw at the NCAA Indoors last season at Texas A&M — just two spots from all-America honors.

Cooper, the Broncos’ record holder in both events, won her first Mid-American Conference title recently at the league’s indoor championships, winning the weight throw by six feet (67 feet, 10.5 inches).

“I’m very excited,” she said. “I just feel a lot more ready to go and believe in my mind that I will be an All-American. I came so close last year and I just have to believe and have confidence. If I just relax and just put (myself) in that mindset that it’s just a normal meet, it should work out.”

“She’s actually more suited for the hammer throw,” Lycan said. “It’s more of a speed event. Last year in the first outdoor meet at the Alabama Relays, she hurt her back and it bothered her all season.

“We never really got to see what Irene could do in the hammer. So coach Griffey and I both are having a whole lot of fun and it’s really exciting watching her with the weight indoors.”